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MEMBER DIARY

A few notes about the Contraception Mandate and the Catholic Church

There are a lot of opinions on the Contraception Mandate and a few things need to be said both to hearten Catholics and to explain to non-Catholics.

First for the Catholics, do not worry. The Catholic Church has been going strong for 2000 years surviving and defeating the likes of Roman emperors, Islamic invaders and Communist dictators. Obama doesn’t stand a chance. We’ll come back to this later.

For the non-Catholics, understand that the Church is experienced in these matters. It is patient and has its goal firmly in mind and that goal is serving Christ. I know it’s frustrating in this day and age that the Bishops aren’t on TV talking and debating their opponents. There is no debate. They will not comply. Publicly debating the point would simply alienate people and harden hearts. They will not push away anyone from the faith except when by doing so it serves Christ. That is truly rare. It sees itself as the church of all men and women, from the businessman to the street walker, from the anarchist to the statist, from the citizen to the President. It does not entice its members to join with the best preachers, the biggest halls or just one way of expressing faith. It sees itself as focused up to God and not down into the pews. It does not measure its legitimacy by the makeup of its congregation. The Catholic Church is catholic (all encompassing) and this does not just mean that it sees itself as encompassing all churches but all people too.

The Obama administration’s justification for the modification of the Contraception Mandate will fail to sway the Church. The argument that it is not telling the Catholic Church to spend money on contraception, merely saving it money on paying for childbirth and children’s medical care is no different than China’s one child policy. The Catholic Church believes that both are equally against Christ’s will and the church of St. Thomas Aquinas is not swayed by logic wrapped in accounting methods. It will not comply.

Right now, as we speak, there are thousands of Catholic Churches in America each with a devout and humble person attending to the Eucharist. This goes on every hour of every day of every year. This sacrifice they make strengthens them to make other sacrifices, a communal strength community organizers can only dream of. There may come a day when the Catholic Church seemingly has its back against the wall but don’t be fooled by its humility. Humility is not weakness. It has the strength of thousands of people who will stand for it and pray anywhere, anytime in community for Christ’s mission and even that strength pales in comparison to the strength of Christ.

On one side we have the Catholic Church on a point of its belief and on the other side we have Obama and his thought. There is no doubt which will prevail.